Gazeka
|Reported = 1875 |Researchers = • Karl Shuker}} The gazeka or Monckton's gazeka was a cryptid reported from Papua New Guinea and famously described by explorer Charles Monckton around the turn of the 20th Century. Monckton, Charles (1922) Last Days in New Guinea Etymology The name "Gazeka" was not used by either Monckton or Papuan people. The original gazeka was a monster appearing in a comic stage musical, The Little Michus, created by George Graves. In the musical, the gazeka is discovered by an alcoholic explorer "who was accompanied in his travels by a case of whiskey, and who half thought that he had seen it before in a sort of dream.". Karl Shuker points out that whoever first referred to the Papuan devil pig as "Monckton's gazeka" was in fact calling Monckton a liar or a drunkard. Monckton himself referred to "witty scribes" referring to the animal as a gazeka. The original name used for the animal was "devil pig". Description Witness Ogi described the animals he saw as 3'6'' tall and 4' long, vaguely pig-shaped, with very dark or black patterned hides, cloven feet, a long snout, and a hairy tail. They grazed on grass and moss and had a long, shrill call. Evidence Tusk Sometime before 1920, Monckton was given by natives of Goodenough Island in Papua New Guinea's Milne Bay "a very big, extremely old, almost circular tusk," which the locals claimed was the fang of a giant snake, but which he thought resembled the tusk of a boar. Sir James Hector identified it as the tusk of a babirusa, which is not found in Oceania, but Monckton eventually came to believe that it was a tusk from his devil-pig. He gave the tusk to a friend, Richard Burton of Longner Hall in Shrewsbury.Monckton, Charles (1920) Some Experiences of a Resident Magistrate Artifacts Since 1962 a number of stone carvings (1) have been discovered in the Ambun Valley of New Guinea's highlands, depicting a prominently trunked animal. Although traditionally identified as a long-beaked echidna, in 1987 mammalogist James I. Menzies proposed that the appearance of the animals was more consistent with Palorchestes (see below for more information on this theory). Sightings 1875 In 1875, Lieutenant Sidney Smith and Captain John Moresby (for whom Port Moresby, capital of Papua New Guinea, is named) of the HMS Basilisk discovered a very large dung heap whilst surveying the north coast of Papua New Guinea between Huon Bay and Cape Basilisk. The heap was too large to have been made by a pig, and the sailors believed it to have been produced by a rhinoceros, which are not found in New Guinea: 1906 The most famous encounter occured during Captain Charles Monckton's expedition to Mount Albert Edward, during which he personally saw tracks, dung, and other traces of some large unknown animal: On the 10th of May two expedition members, an army private called Ogi and a village constable called Oina, were sent out to find a trackway but became seperated, and whilst seeking Oina, Ogi came across two large pig-like creatures grazing. Ogi fired on them, and the smaller one wandered off, but the larger only turned and looked at him. He saw something odd in the animal, and the carrier who was with him called it a "devil-pig". As Ogi tried to reload, the smaller animal called, and the larger walked off (Monckton believed they were mates). Ogi himself never described the encounter in print, but Monckton recounted his experience as follows: Monckton could not discover what happened afterwards, as Ogi and the carrier were both in a state of shock. 1910 During a British Ornithologists Union expedition to the Mimika River, naturalist Walter Goodfellow collected native testimonies of a similar creature. 1952 Supposedly, two American pilots claimed to have seen "red elephants" in a large canyon in New Guinea's Nassau Mountains on 15 June 1952. The canyon was later discovered by others, but the elephants were never seen again. Karl Shuker writes that, as elephants are not native to Oceania, and would be very difficult to transport to New Guinea by sea, these animals may have been the long-snouted devil pigs. Their red skin might be explained by dried mud or dust, which often stains the skin of actual elephants red. Theories When stories of dung piles and large animals in New Guinea reached European ears, they were originally believed to refer to a true rhinoceros, but several authors including Karl Shuker, Michel Raynal, and George Eberhart note that, whatever the gazeka is, it is more likely to be a marsupial than a placental mammal, as New Guinea lies east of the Lydekker Line; its fauna is principally Australasian, not Asiatic. Monckton, who did not see the animal himself, compared it to a Southeast Asian babirusa based on Ogi's description, and Raynal notes that these animals are strong swimmers, and could conceivably have reached New Guinea.Raynal, Michel [https://cryptozoo.pagesperso-orange.fr/2nd_role/gazeka.htm "Le gazeka, "porc-diable" de la Nouvelle-Guinée" Institut Virtuel de Cryptozoologie] cryptozoo.pagesperso-orange.fr 24 May 2019 Suggestions of out-of-place babirusa, wild feral pigs, Malayan tapirs, and Javan rhinoceroses are discounted by George Eberhart. The current mainstream belief regarding the dung seen by Smith and Moresby is that it was from a cassowary (Casuarius spp.). As early as 1910, American palaeontologist William D. Matthew theorised that it could have been a living Diprotodon - a Late Pleistocene marsupial resembling a giant wombat - a suggestion later supported by Bernard Heuvelmans, and Eberhart also lists the similar Nototherium as a possible explanation. However, neither Diprotodon nor Nototherium are believed to have had a pig-like snout, and neither are known from New Guinea. Shuker also considered the possibility that, if the "rhinoceroses" reported from New Guinea where not in fact the same animal as the pig-like gazeka, they may have been surviving diprotodonts such as Nototherium. As a result of problems with other theories, the most prominent theory now is that the animals are or were relict Palorchestes, a type of large diprotodontid marsupial related to Diprotodon, which did indeed possess a tapir-like snout, proposed by Christine Janis in 1987 and supported by Karl Shuker and later Heuvelmans.Shuker, Karl ShukerNature: SEEKING MEGA-CAECILIANS karlshuker.blogspot.com September 2018 However, no Palorchestes remains are known from New Guinea, or indeed from anywhere outside of Australia, but certain other diprotodontids are known from New Guinea, which was connected to the Australian mainland during the last ice age, making it plausible that Palorchestes or a relative could have crossed into New Guinea. Further cryptozoological reading *Shuker, Karl P. N. (2016) Still In Search Of Prehistoric Survivors: The Creatures That Time Forgot?, Coachwhip Publications, ISBN 978-1616463908 Most of the existing research on the gazeka has been done by Shuker, but an unidentified book found in a Canadian library also mentioned it. This book is notable because it is said to contain a second photograph of De Loys' ape. Notes and references Do you think the exists? If so, what do you think the is? Myth, folklore, hoax, or otherwise made-up Mistaken identity Palorchestes Unknown giant pig Unknown tapir Category:Cryptids Category:Oceania Category:Irian Jaya Category:Papua New Guinea Category:Suids Category:Marsupials Category:Theory: Mistaken identity babirusa Category:Theory: Living fossil - Diprotodonts and palorchestids Category:Historical - Modern Category:No recent sightings Category:1875 Category:1910 Category:1906 Category:Featured